Stock is paid for before it is sold. This guide covers how to tell good inventory spending from slow-moving spending, and how to size a working-capital request to the real turn.
Apply Now →A shelf of product, a rack of parts or a warehouse bay of pallets is money you already spent, parked where you cannot make payroll with it. Every inventory business lives between two dates: the day the supplier invoice is paid and the day the customer pays you. The longer that stretch, the more working capital the business needs just to stay the same size.
Texas makes the stretch worse for some owners and better for others. The state is large, so a shop in Lubbock or El Paso often orders in bigger, less frequent batches than a shop in a dense metro because freight and lead time are longer. Bigger batches mean more cash out at once.
Before asking how much to fund, sort the stock by how fast it comes back as cash.
| Type of stock | How it moves | Cash risk |
|---|---|---|
| Fast-turn staples (consumables, repeat-order parts) | Reorders weekly or monthly | Low: the cash returns quickly and can be recycled |
| Seasonal goods | Bought months ahead, sold in a short window | High: all the cost lands before any of the revenue |
| Special orders and made-to-order inputs | Tied to a signed customer order | Moderate: demand is known, payment timing is not |
| Slow movers and overstock | Sits for quarters | Highest: funding more of it deepens the problem |
Working capital fits the first three rows when the sale is likely. It fits the last row poorly, and a candid owner will say so before an advisor has to.
For illustration only, and not our terms or a typical outcome: a Houston-area tool supplier wants to add a new product line. The supplier invoice is $60,000 and shipping adds $4,000. The owner expects to sell through the line over roughly ten weeks, and the first customers will pay on net-30 terms.
The honest sizing question is not “how much does the line cost” but “how much cash is missing between week zero and week fourteen” after counting what the business can already cover from its own account. That second number is the working-capital request, and it is often smaller than the invoice.
Ask three plain questions. Can you name the customers or the channel for this stock? Is there a date by which the stock should have turned into cash? And if half of it sells slower than planned, can the business still make its payroll? If the answer to the third question is no, shrink the order, not just the request.
Texas Biz Funding looks at working capital from $25,000 to $5,000,000, with funding in as little as 24 hours once approved. Sole proprietors can apply, the application takes about five minutes and it uses a soft credit pull, so asking does not hurt a score.
Usually the better use of working capital is stock you have a buyer for. Funding aging overstock rarely fixes the reason it did not sell.
Work back from your sales rate. If a product sells through in six weeks and your supplier takes three weeks to deliver, you need about nine weeks of cover in cash and shelf space combined, not more.
Supplier terms are cheaper when you can get them. They are limited by the supplier’s credit view of you, so many shops use terms for staples and working capital for the larger or seasonal purchases.
Yes. Sole proprietors can apply. The funder will look at the business’s bank activity, not at whether it is incorporated.
That is the main risk, and it is why the request should be sized to a cautious sell-through rather than the best case.
Three months of business bank statements and a 5-minute application. FICO 500+ considered. $25,000 to $5,000,000, funded in as little as 24 hours.
Apply Now →It takes about two minutes and it will not affect your credit score.
No obligation • No impact to your credit score
